Risky Business
| director = Paul Brickman | producer = Jon Avnet Steve Tisch | writer = Paul Brickman | starring = | music = Tangerine Dream | cinematography = Bruce Surtees | editing = Richard Chew | studio = The Geffen Film Company | distributor = Warner Bros. | released = | runtime = 99 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = $6.2 million | gross = $63.5 million }} Risky Business is a 1983 American coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by Paul Brickman (in his directorial debut) and starring Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay. The film covers themes including materialism, loss of innocence, coming of age, and capitalism. Known as Cruise's breakout film, Risky Business was a critical and commercial success, grossing more than $63 million against a $6.2 million budget. Plot Joel Goodson is a high-achieving high school student who lives with his wealthy parents in the Chicago North Shore area of Glencoe. His father wants him to attend Princeton University, his alma mater, so Joel participates in Future Enterprisers, an extracurricular activity in which students work in teams to create small businesses. When his parents go away on a trip, Joel's friend, Miles, convinces him to take advantage of his newfound freedom to have some fun. On the first night, he raids the liquor cabinet, plays the stereo loudly, and dances around the living room in his underwear and pink dress shirt to "Old Time Rock and Roll". The following day, Miles calls a call girl named Jackie on Joel's behalf. Jackie turns out to be a tall, masculine transvestite. Joel pays Jackie to go away, but before she leaves, she gives Joel the number for Lana, another prostitute. That night, Joel is unable to sleep and hesitantly calls Lana. She turns out to be a gorgeous blonde and they have sex all night. Lana asks Joel for $300 for her services. He goes to the bank, but when he returns, Lana is gone, along with his mother's expensive Steuben glass egg. Joel finds Lana and demands the egg back, but they are interrupted by Lana's pimp Guido, who pulls a gun. While in his father's Porsche 928, Joel is chased by Guido, but eventually escapes. Lana tells Joel that the egg is with the rest of her stuff at Guido's. Joel lets Lana stay at his house while he goes to school. When he returns, his friends are over, and Lana has invited another prostitute, Vicki, to stay, but Joel rejects the idea. That night, Joel, Lana, Vicki, and Joel's friend Barry go out. They get stoned, and while Vicki and Barry wander away, Joel and Lana talk. Lana takes exception to something Joel says and leaves. While retrieving her purse from Joel's car, she moves the shifter out of gear. Moments later, the car rolls down the hill and onto a pier, despite Joel's futile attempt to stop it. The pier collapses, dumping the Porsche into Lake Michigan. When Joel takes the car to a repair shop, he is horrified to learn how much it will cost to fix it. He and Lana later decide to turn his parents' house into a brothel for a night; Joel's share of the profits will pay for the car repairs. The party is a huge success; the house is packed with Joel's friends and classmates and Lana's co-workers. However, the recruiter from Princeton, Rutherford, chooses that night to interview Joel for admission to Princeton. The interview is plagued by interruptions, and Rutherford is unimpressed by Joel's resumé. Afterwards, he stays at the party and becomes acquainted with Lana's friends. After the party, Joel and Lana go and have sex on the Chicago "L". The next morning, Joel finds his house has been burgled. When he tries to call Lana, Guido answers; he tells Joel that he will let Joel buy back his furniture. Joel and his friends manage to get everything moved back in just as his parents walk in, though his mother notices a crack in her egg. Later, Joel's father congratulates him; the interviewer was very impressed and has indicated Joel will be accepted into Princeton. Joel meets Lana at a restaurant, and they speculate about their future. She tells him that she wants to keep on seeing him; he jokes that it will cost her. Alternate ending The remastered 25th-anniversary edition offers "both the upbeat studio ending and Mr. Brickman's original, more tentative and melancholic conclusion". Cast *Tom Cruise as Joel Goodson *Rebecca De Mornay as Lana *Joe Pantoliano as Guido *Nicholas Pryor as Mr. Goodson *Janet Carroll as Mrs. Goodson *Richard Masur as Rutherford *Curtis Armstrong as Miles Dalby *Bronson Pinchot as Barry *Shera Danese as Vicki *Raphael Sbarge as Glenn *Bruce A. Young as Jackie *Fern Persons as Lab Teacher Soundtrack The film was scored by Tangerine Dream. Their music comprises nearly half of the soundtrack album. Also included are songs by Muddy Waters, Prince ("DMSR"), Jeff Beck, Journey, Phil Collins ("In the Air Tonight"), and the song for which the film is best known, "Old Time Rock and Roll" by Bob Seger. The soundtrack album was released on Virgin Records, Tangerine Dream's record company at the time of the film's release. The film also includes "Hungry Heart" by Bruce Springsteen, "Every Breath You Take" by The Police, and "Swamp" by Talking Heads (which includes the words "risky business" in the lyrics). The LP and CD versions of the soundtrack include two different versions of "Love on a Real Train (Risky Business)," neither of which match the version used in the film for the final love scene or closing credits. Reception Risky Business was acclaimed by critics. It is also considered by many as one of the best films of 1983. Janet Maslin, in her 1983 review of the film for The New York Times, called it "part satire, part would-be suburban poetry and part shameless showing off" and said the film "shows an abundance of style", though "you would be hard pressed to find a film whose hero's problems are of less concern to the world at large."[https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F00E1DD153BF936A3575BC0A965948260 Janet Maslin, Review: "Paul Brickman's Risky Business"] The New York Times. August 5, 1983. Retrieved December 12, 2008 She called De Mornay "disarming as a call girl who looks more like a college girl" and credits Cruise with making "Joel's transformation from straight arrow to entrepreneur about as credible as it can be made."[https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F00E1DD153BF936A3575BC0A965948260 J. Maslin NYTimes] Ibid. Roger Ebert was much more positive, calling it a film of "new faces and inspired insights and genuine laughs" and "one of the smartest, funniest, most perceptive satires in a long time" that "not only invites comparison with The Graduate, it earns it".Ebert, Roger. - Review: [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19830101/REVIEWS/301010302/1023 "Risky Business"]. - Chicago Sun-Times. - January 1, 1983. - Retrieved July 2, 2008 Ebert continued: The very best thing about the movie is its dialogue. Paul Brickman, who wrote and directed, has an ear so good that he knows what to leave out. This is one of those movies where a few words or a single line says everything that needs to be said, implies everything that needs to be implied, and gets a laugh. When the hooker tells the kid, "Oh, Joel, go to school, go learn something," the precise inflection of those words defines their relationship for the next three scenes. ''Variety'' said the film was like a "promising first novel, with all the pros and cons that come with that territory" and complimented Brickman on "the stylishness and talent of his direction."[http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117794485.html Review of Risky Business] by Variety The film holds a 96% "Certified Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. Legacy In 2015, the film was #31 on Entertainment Weekly s list of the 50 Best High School Movies. The magazine called the film a "sharp satire of privileged suburban teens", portraying the "soul-crushing pressure to be perfect." In the years since the film's release, the scene featuring Cruise's character dancing in his pink dress shirt and white briefs to "Old Time Rock and Roll" by Bob Seger has been recreated in episodes of many television series, as well as in films, parodies, and advertisements. The song was #100 on AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Songs list. Finnish garage punk band Van Dammes released their Risky Business EP, including a song called Risky Business, in January 2019.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4hye0ID7Ds References External links * * * * Category:1983 films Category:1980s coming-of-age films Category:1980s satirical films Category:1980s sex comedy films Category:1980s teen comedy films Category:American coming-of-age films Category:American films Category:American satirical films Category:American sex comedy films Category:American teen comedy films Category:Coming-of-age comedy films Category:Directorial debut films Category:Films about prostitution in the United States Category:Films about virginity Category:Films scored by Tangerine Dream Category:Films set in Chicago Category:Films shot in Chicago Category:The Geffen Film Company films Category:Transgender in film Category:Warner Bros. films